Sarcopenic Obesity: Prevalence and Association With Metabolic Syndrome in the Korean Longitudinal Study on Health and Aging (KLoSHA)

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the prevalence of sarcopenic obesity (SO) and its relationship with metabolic syndrome in a community-based elderly cohort in Korea. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: In this study, 287 men and 278 women aged 65 or older were recruited. Sarcopenia was defined as the appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM) divided by height squared (Ht(2)) (kg/m(2)) or by weight (Wt) (%) of <1 SD below the sex-specific mean for young adults. Obesity was defined as a visceral fat area ≥100 cm(2). RESULTS: The prevalence of SO was 16.7% in men and 5.7% in women with sarcopenia defined by ASM/Ht(2); however, it was 35.1% in men and 48.1% in women by ASM/Wt. Using ASM/Wt, the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance of subjects with SO was higher and they were at higher risk for metabolic syndrome (odds ratio [OR] 8.28 [95% CI 4.45–15.40]) than the obese (5.51 [2.81–10.80]) or sarcopenic group (2.64 [1.08–6.44]). CONCLUSIONS: SO defined by ASM/Wt was more closely associated with metabolic syndrome than either sarcopenia or obesity alone.